Population, urbanization and environment

Transcripts - Population, urbanization and environment

1.
Population, Urbanization and
Environment
December 8th, 2014
Daniel Gabaldón-Estevan
Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, University of Valencia (ES)

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Population, Urbanization and Environment, (introduction and index)
[Giddens, A. 2001Sociology, pp. 698]
Social change “Alteration in the basic
structures of a social group or society. Social
change is an ever present phenomenon in
social life, but has become especially intense
in the modern era. The origins of modern
sociology can be traced to attempts to
understand the dramatic changes shattering
the traditional world and promoting new forms
of social order” (p. 698).
Population growth
(concepts and theories)
Cities and urban spaces
(theories and trends)
Ecological crisis
(pollution, waste,
depletion of resources
and risk)

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Population growth: demographic concepts
[Giddens, A. 2001Sociology, pp. 602-609]
Crude birth rates: the number of live births per year per
thousand of the population
Concepts
Fertility: the number of live-born children the average of women
has (i.e. average number of births per thousand women of
childbearing age
Fecundity: the potential number of children women are
biologically capable of bearing
Crude death rates: the number of deaths per thousand of the
population per year
Mortality: the number of deaths in a population
Infant mortality rates: the number of babies per thousand births
in a year who die before reaching the age of one
Life expectancy: the number of years the average person can
expect to live
Life span: the maximum number of years that an individual could
live

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Cities and urban spaces: theories of urbanism
[Giddens, A. 2001Sociology, pp. 573-579]
The Chicago School
Robert E.
Park
Ernest W.
Burgess
Urban ecology the siting of major
urban settlements and the distribution
of different types of neighbourhoods
understood as species in the natural world
by means of competition, invasion and
succession.
http://cronodon.com/images/Burgess2.jpg
Amos Hawley, years latter,
would rather talk about
interdependence due to
differentiation)

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Cities and urban spaces: theories of urbanism
[Giddens, A. 2001Sociology, pp. 573-579]
Urbanism as a way of life urbanism is a form of social existence
and it influences the nature of the wither social system, is not just a
part of society. It is characterized by proximity but unknowingness
(interactions as means to other ends) highly mobile but weak
bonds, faster ‘peace of life’, and competition prevails over
cooperation.
The Chicago
School
Louis
Wirth
Coit Tower Mural,
“City Life” By Victor Arnautoff
Photo: Harvey Smith
Criticism to Chicago School based
mainly in observations of American
cities not valid for all times and
places. There are still communities
inside cities and they might
preclude subcultural diversity
(Claude Fischer, 1984). Or the
‘harder shell to crack’ of the ‘urban
egg’ (Edward Krupat, 1985: 36)

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Cities and urban spaces: theories of urbanism
[Giddens, A. 2001Sociology, pp. 573-579]
Recent contributions
David
Harvey
City as an integral part of processes of collective consumption.
Lay-out and architectural features of cities and neighbourhoods
express struggles and conflicts between different groups in
society (symbolic and spatial manifestations of broader social
forces) market forces, government and social movements.
Manuel
Castells
Created environment brought about by the spread of
industrial capitalism that blurs the difference between rural
and the urban. Space is continually restructured by (1) large
firms, (2) the controls asserted by governments over land and
industrial production, and (3) private investors buying and
selling houses and land.

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Cities and urban spaces: trends in Western urban development
[Giddens, A. 2001Sociology, pp. 579-587]
Suburbanization: earlier in UK than USA. In USA ¾ of white front ¼
of African American live in suburbia in 1990 now changing to
become a class issue.
Inner city decay: cycle of deterioration ‘flight to suburbs’ means a
loss of local tax revenues, building stock becomes more run-down,
crime rates and unemployment increase. More must therefore be
spent on welfare services, schools, buildings, police and fire service.
Urban conflict: due to poverty; ethnic division and antagonism;
crime; and the insecurities derived from the previous.
Urban renewal: revival of inner city areas and the sustainable
development of outlying regions should happen because of
technological revolution, ecological threats, and social
transformation, and should include recycled land and building,
improve the urban environment, excellence in managing local areas
(democratic participation of citizens), delivering regeneration
Urban recycling: gentrification "the transformation of a working-class
or vacant area of the central city to a middle class residential
and/or commercial use”*
*Lees, Loretta, Tom Slater, and Elvin K. Wyly. Gentrification.
New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, 2008.

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Cities and urban spaces: challenges in urbanization in the developing
world [Giddens, A. 2001Sociology, pp. 587-590]
Economic implications: high relevance of informal economy that is
untaxed ,unregulated and less productive than formal economy.
Environmental challenges: pollution, housing shortages, inadequate
sanitation and unsafe water supplies. (“living in Mexico City is
equivalent to smoke 40 cigarettes a day” pp. 589)
Social effects: overcrowded and under-resourced. Poverty
widespread and demands for health care, family planning advice,
education and training are not meet in a very young population
whose access to schooling is restrained.

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Cities and urban spaces: cities and globalization [Giddens, A. 2001Sociology, pp.
591-593]
Global cities: as NY, London or Tokyo (Saskia Sassen) characterized
by: being ‘command posts’ of the global economy; key locations for
financial and specialized service firms; sites of production and
innovation of these newly expanded industries; are also te markets
where to buy, sell and dispose them.
The city and periphery: cities as they become more global they also
disconnect from their outlying regions and nation
Inequality and the global city: “The growth sectors of the ‘new
economy’ – financial services, marketing, high technology – are
reaping profits far greater than any found within traditional
economic sectors. As the salaries and bonuses of the very affluent
continue to climb, the wages of those employed to clean and guard
their offices are dropping”.

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Ecological crisis

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The Limits to Growth ”is a 1972 book about
the computer simulation of
exponential economic and population growth with finite
resource supplies commissioned by the Club of Rome.
The book used the World3 model to simulate the
consequence of interactions between the Earth's and
human systems.
Five variables were examined in the original
model: world population, industrialization, pollution,
food production, and resource depletion.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth
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Ecological crisis: limits to growth
http://www.worldwatch.org/brain/features/timeline/timeline.htm

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Ecological crisis: sustainable development
Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland
Report, from the United Nations World Commission on
Environment and Development (WCED) was published
in 1987.
Its targets were multilateralism and interdependence of
nations in the search for a sustainable development
path (sought to recapture the spirit of the Stockholm
Conference - which had introduced environmental
concerns to the formal political development sphere).
Our Common Future placed environmental issues
firmly on the political agenda; it aimed to discuss the
environment and development as one single issue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Common_Future
"development that meets the
needs of the present without
compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their
own needs"